Yes those voices through the ages, you've noticed as have I utter the same content or message speaking to one another as well as to those having ears in the moment. Marx had his Epicurus, Arendt her Aristotle. She was a sea'going vessel; the former a ship in a bottle.

Where I grew up we had "gymnasiums" between the ages of 14 and 18. Learning Latin was mandatory, philosophy was mandatory, so was logic. There isn't one person from the "evil" Communist block countries that has failed to read Marcus Aurelius and St. Augustine, let alone the Nicomanchean Ethics, most of Plato, most of Socrates, much of Aristotle - I admit we all tried to abbreviate the Iliad and the Odyssey. I do remain devoted to Marcus Aurelius' thought, very closely, to this day (45 years after I first laid my eyes on it, and re-read it a good few dozen times since). In either case I find that all the named authors held consistently views that had a lot in common - irrespective of date when the writings saw the light of day. I am glad that you too see the good fertile logical grounds among the same authors.

Allow me to get slightly off the topic you suggested and propose we look into the crime rate (by ethnicity), prison population composition (by ethnicity), and to suggest that the slavery has been abolished in the time of Abraham Lincoln (13th Amendment in 1864). But now, it seems like the nation entire is enslaved in a much different and a more sophisticated manner to its own government instead of plantation owners.

Iliya Pavlovich

"In one word, the man who has no natural kinship with this matter cannot be made akin to it by quickness of learning or memory; for it cannot be engendered at all in natures which are foreign to it. Therefore, if men are not by nature kinship allied to justice and all other things that are honourable, though they may be good at learning and remembering other knowledge of various kinds-or if they have the kinship but are slow learners and have no memory-none of all these will ever learn to the full the truth about virtue and vice."

If you are one of those who can learn the full truth, those questions and answers you speak of are not necessarily with yourself alone. You may wish to read, if you haven't already The Confessions of Saint Augustine, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, both of which are free online. Although I find having the books at hand much more intimate.

Presently, the apparently inextricable situation is: the richest blind leading (and devouring) the blind. In other words mechanistic materialism in its ongoing and inevitable descent has arrived at the insect level in 'human' affairs now. Which brings to mind some of the works of Kafka which I must revisit soon.

I think it may have been Aristotle who pointed out there really is no such thing as a conversation with oneself. In other words the soul at a distance is involved.

As Plato pointed out, we have the name, the definition, the image, the knowledge and the soul involved. ... Peace.

All these so-called mob violence episodes are really evidence of the once proud and self-confident people we were. The people who would surround a courthouse, peering intently into the - open!- windows, hanging on every word of the testimony, in the heat of a Georgia July, were Americans who still retained some inkling of where the sovereignty of the nation should lie - in themselves. I am in awe of our ancestors' lack of fear of the organized police power. Can we imagine a crowd of today's cowed victims of anarcho-tyranny actually going to the courthouse steps - the very jaws of the beast - and threatening one of our robed masters today, such that mounted troops have to swoop in and rescue him?

To be punished in such an inhuman way (as Mr. Buchanan), is beyond reproach and overtly hostile, it is downright criminal. We all know what "affirmative action" stands for. What is the proportion of the white Americans that have benefited from the affirmative action? What is the ratio of white vs. non-white employees at any government agency, post office, Department of Motor Vehicles in your state? According to my own experiences (NY, CA, FL, VA, GA) the ratio is about 10 (non-white) to 1 white. Admittedly I can't state with absolute certainty that all of them are legitimate US citizens.

To some extent this looks like the days of the Boston Tea Party - Taxation without representation is at issue yet again - this time by our own elected government. In addition to the gross injustices perpetrated by own government, we are to believe that "things are getting better". What things? Define "better"? I have to ask and answer my own questions.

Iliya Pavlovich

So much for the Freedom of speech.

No matter how hard we fight, we can never uproot all the stupidity of men - but the moment we stop fighting the stupidity will triumph over us.

If only 75% of American born people knew, how the US Constitution, was quoted, cited, written about, mentioned in speeches, schools, books, - outside of the USA, they would value it, and fight for it a lot more. This way it's the lesser number of well educated or foreign born Americans that are fighting for America.

I can't avoid two sentences from today's show on Discovery channel about Moonshine in the South:
Beer was legal to make, wine was legal to make, but not liquor.

The taxes on a gallon of liquor were as high as $2,00 so the "revenuers" and other agents went out to the backwoods to "bring these moonshiner to justice" -

Look how "bring moonshiners to justice" translates into generate revenue.

We are being lied to endlessly, and must never let our guard down.

I am absolutely appalled that this shame has taken place in public with such audacity. Not even a mild attempt to cloak this shame into some issue of "national interests" - homeland security or some other nebulous form.

http://douglassbartley.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/good-men-are-always-being-sacked/